When did lava burst become part of the ele rotation, again?

Classes Shaman
1

Start of TWW, Lava Burst was basically relegated to “Eh, if you need to move and you don’t have Stormbringer/Nature’s Swiftness/Spirtwalker’s Grace, use it if you have a proc” and it felt good. No more pretending to be a pseudo fire mage, I was a proper Stormbringer Shaman, electrocuting all my enemies.

Now, I’m reading guides and once more we’re back to flinging fireballs like we should be wearing cloth, and Chain Lightning/Lightning Bolt are back to being “use it if you have nothing else”. When did this change and why? I was so happy to finally get lava burst off my bars and go back to being a nature-powered sith lord of Azeroth like Shaman used to be, now I’m a crazed killer clown wannabe mage… and I no longer feel like a shaman at all.

1 Like
2

This changed in our last balancing patch because it’s criminal to not wield all of the elements when your class is designed to be a master of the elements.

4 Likes
3

… and yet we don’t use ice, wind, water, to nearly the same extent? Fire was already present via Flame Shock.

How bad would it be for me to just never use Lava Burst and take it off my bars entirely? I’ve hated it since it was introduced into the game.

2 Likes
4

very tired comparison

are you measuring extent as damage done? in that case sure - but as far as the kit goes ice (frost) is used quite a lot, wind is just nature (a lot), and water which is historically healing is also there

Pretty bad at the moment

spamming LB/CL gameplay is degenerate, as is any gameplay that encourages you to completely ignore a majority of your kit

3 Likes
5

I meant in terms of spells. Wind is just Wind Shear. What ice spells do shamans get by default?

Ugh. This, plus the ascension model changes have really turned me off of playing Shaman again.

6

Default is an odd term cause you can certainly design something absent of most “essential” spells although it would be an abomination

Frost Shock / Icefury have been a staple of ele for a while now

¯_(ツ)_/¯
I like both of those things lol

2 Likes
7

frost shock has a long history of being a part of the ele kit.

it was only recently that ele design became so horrible you started ignoring 1/2 your spells and talents. the recent update was an attempt to make an ele sham use the elements.

3 Likes
8

I rather enjoyed the simplified rotation and chance to be what was attractive back in Classic - chucking big ol’ lightning. Stormbringer felt amazing for that.

1 Like
9

a lot of people felt pressing the same button 10 times in a row was the worst design ele ever had

6 Likes
10

It was. Thank god we got away from it finally.

You’re still doing that 100%; you’re just using other spells, too.

6 Likes
11

Not optimal of course but it’s fine. Play without Mote and move that point elsewhere. Play the way you like and take talents accordingly that will Benefit the way you enjoy the class

12

Completely off topic but if you put two \’s you don’t lose that left line.

¯\(ツ)/¯

1 Like
13

Can I get a scalding water glyph for Lava Burst?

14

The only way for there to be a primarily Lightning focused ele shaman is if they actually added new lightning spells or converted existing spells into lightning spells. Ele just does not have enough to make a full rotation.

This was something Blizzard was told about a bunch in beta when they said they wanted lightning, weaving, and fire builds for ele, but they ignored it. So what we got instead was a braindead lightning build and now it’s back to a weaving build.

As much as I would like for a lightning focused build to exist, that ship has sailed for this expansion since they botched beta development. Weaving build is far superior in terms of gameplay.

15

A really cool talent would be scalding water where your lava burst has a water component to it that splashed onto nearby allies and heals them.

16

I’m just disappointed with the lack of offensive hydromancy…in just about every game.

1 Like
17

Yeah, i mean that’s a trope as old as the hills honestly. People don’t think about water as being harmful even though tusnamis and powerful waves exist… drowning…

I think the only game i can recall I’ve seen water be harmful is Pokémon :laughing:

18

That’s resto’s bit though ain’t it?

19

Sure but (and I’m not sure how I feel about referencing this) ATLA showed how powerful offensive water abilities can be. I don’t know how close I’d link shamans to “bending”, but we do have Icefury, and Katara often froze her water to use it. Not sure what Odin is on about truthfully. (As an aside, I really, REALLY wanted a lightning focused play style to be viable. Elemental means ELEMENTal, but there’s not much focus on lightning as a damage outpit as I’d like, in general, and was hoping Ele would offer that. Oh well, that’s a me issue.)

20

I mean I get it for aesthetic and feel but honestly its for the better we don’t have this Fire vs Lighting design that the spec tree pushed us in for all of DF. It feels much better now having some customizable options (especially for M+). Lighting is still quite literally the bread and butter of our AoE and in single target Lighting makes up a 3rd of our damage.

I am a gameplay focused person though so I’m probably the worst person to have this convo with.

Honestly, I’ve always seen Elemental within the same aesthetic of being the Avatar and just ripping though stuff with a bunch of different elements. I kinda see water still has it’s place becasue one the coolest aspects of Shaman DPS is the fact we have AG and the stupid amount of healing we can do with our damage which I see as us using our mastery of the other elements to shift residual elemental forces of our damaging elements into healing waters to achieve harmony with the elements.

OK as I was writing this I have come to the realization that I might be into class fantasy more than I realized LMAO

1 Like